{"id":60129492,"date":"2026-04-24T17:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?post_type=photo_story&p=60129492"},"modified":"2026-04-24T17:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:52:21","slug":"at-the-barricade-a-mothers-stand-against-mining-in-dupax-del-norte","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/at-the-barricade-a-mothers-stand-against-mining-in-dupax-del-norte\/","title":{"rendered":"At the barricade: A mother\u2019s stand against mining in Dupax del Norte"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the past seven months, Analiza Balliao, 39, has started the day by preparing her two children for school, then tending to the garden where she and her husband Alfredo grow chillies to sell in the provincial market. Once her morning chores are done, she walks to a makeshift camp to join a human barricade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The obstacle is set up at the entrance of Bitnong village, in the mountain town of Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, northern Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
Bitnong resident Analiza Balliao tends her plot of chillies on the steep slopes around the village (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Hands<\/div>
Farming is her family\u2019s main source of income. She sells the chillies at the local market for PHP 30 (USD 0.50) per kilo (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Two<\/div>
Once her morning chores are done, Analiza walks with her neighbour Carmelita Aquino to help guard the barricade, set up on the road leading into their village in October 2025. The barrier is part of an action by the community to block the entry of vehicles and equipment from Woggle Corporation, and protest against a mining exploration permit they say was granted to the company without the knowledge or consent of local people (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When Analiza arrives, more than a dozen residents from surrounding barangays<\/em> (villages) are already there. The women wash dishes, sort out donated vegetables, set a fire on the stove. The men axe wood. Some people sip coffee. Others huddle around a laptop watching their barricade on the news. They are talking, laughing, trading jokes in the easy rhythm of people who have been spending their mornings together for months. Others keep an eye on the road, checking the IDs of every motorist they do not recognise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community set the barricade up as a response to a mining exploration permit they say was granted without their knowledge or consent. The permit<\/a> went to Woggle Corporation, which is owned by Metals Exploration PLC, a UK-listed company. Woggle planned<\/a> to expand its existing open-pit mining operation<\/a> in Runruno, also in Nueva Vizcaya, by exploring more than 3,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land for gold, copper, lead and zinc in neighbouring Dupax del Norte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A permit kept secret<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The application for the permit was filed<\/a> with the Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau<\/a> in July 2022 and approved in August 2025. Residents of Dupax del Norte claim that in that time, community members in the five affected villages of Bitnong, Inaban, Munguia, Parai and Oyao didn\u2019t even know an application was being processed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congressman Timothy Cayton, then Dupax del Norte mayor, said<\/a> at a 23 February Senate hearing that they had made the application public by posting it on a bulletin board and in newspapers. Lawyer Ryan Roset, of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, argued that this is not the same as a public consultation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was no genuine consultation conducted with the different barangays<\/em> or local government units,\u201d Florentino Daynos, president of Dupax del Norte Environmental Defenders, told Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dialogue Earth reached out to Woggle Corporation by phone and email, but did not get a response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/div>
One of Woggle\u2019s explorative drilling sites within Bitnong\u2019s boundaries. It sits on farmland owned by a community member, and is just above a stream (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Analiza first noticed something was amiss when she returned from selling vegetables one morning to find red markers and wires laid across her garden, some of them going through her crops \u2013 without warning, without permission. The wires, she was later told, were used to detect mineral deposits beneath the soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just saw them there, men trespassing on our property along with their equipment,\u201d she recalled, adding that some areas of her property were cleared for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dialogue Earth contacted Metals Exploration by email regarding their permit application and the ingress of exploration equipment into Dupax del Norte. They did not respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 17 September 2025, the community set up the first barricade in their village to block incoming equipment from the mining company. A more substantial barrier on the road entering the village followed the next month. Analiza and Alfredo did not hesitate to join. They continue to take turns guarding it, bringing their children along when school is out to solve the childcare issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resistance has come at a cost. Their income from the garden was already precarious, rising and falling with market prices. Spending time at the barricade has made it even more so. \u201cThe important thing is you have something for each day, something for the children\u2019s needs,\u201d Analiza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"People<\/div>
A protestor ties down the barrier currently blocking the road into Bitnong village, which community members have guarded since October last year (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
In the makeshift tents next to the barricade, some of the women gather around a laptop to watch a news report about their protest (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

For a time, the barrier was able to prevent Woggle from bringing their equipment into the area, but on 17 October 2025, they faced the first of several dispersals by the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2026, the cost of resistance became even higher for Analiza, when she was arrested<\/a> along with six others by police enforcing a local court order to dismantle the barricade and allow mining exploration equipment to enter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day after her arrest, her 10-year-old daughter was rushed to hospital by her father after fainting. Analiza pleaded with the police and was eventually allowed to visit, but officers did not leave her side. She sat with her child under guard, not knowing whether she would be allowed to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t eat, I couldn\u2019t sleep, my blood pressure shot up because of what happened to my daughter, and I couldn\u2019t go to her immediately,\u201d Analiza told Dialogue Earth in Filipino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After three days in detention, Analiza was released, heading straight back to the hospital where her daughter was being treated for what turned out to be meningitis. Mother and daughter stayed together in the hospital for two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/div>
Analiza cradles her sleeping daughter at the barrier camp. As a mother, Analiza\u2019s involvement in the protest has a particularly high emotional cost. In January, she was arrested along with six other protestors. The next day, her daughter was rushed to hospital with meningitis, and Analiza was only able to visit her under police guard (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A law built for extraction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The legal framework enabling Woggle\u2019s entry is the Philippine Mining Act of 1995<\/a>, which opened the country to large-scale foreign mining investment and remains the basis for permit approvals today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joice Leray, advocacy officer for the Center for Environmental Concerns, a Philippine non-profit, says the law prioritises extraction over community rights and environmental protection, giving agencies like the Mines and Geosciences Bureau broad discretion to approve permits with minimal public disclosure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says the mining act \u201cwas made to open up, to tear through our country, for foreign mining companies\u201d. Leray added: \u201cIn 31 years of this law, we have seen that it does not serve the people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/div>
The lush landscapes that residents of Dupax del Norte are seeking to protect from open-pit mining. Terraces allow farmers in mountainous regions like this to grow rice even on steep slopes (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The threat to Dupax del Norte is not abstract. Tin Araneta, a geologist with Agham (Advocates of Science and Technology for the People), another non-profit, said open-pit mining in a forested area strips vegetation, destabilises the terrain and can contaminate groundwater and surface water almost immediately once mineralised rock is exposed. The effects can persist for years. Stripped farmland is rarely rehabilitated in time to prevent lasting damage, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe intensity of the extraction process is too fast compared to how the environment recovers,\u201d Araneta told Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dupax del Norte lies within the Magat watershed<\/a> \u2013 a critical water system spanning four provinces in Northern Luzon that supplies one of the Philippines\u2019 largest hydroelectric dams and supports irrigated agriculture downstream. Residents think that mining in their town will affect the watershed, as all their waterways lead to the Magat River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau declined to be interviewed for this story. At the Senate hearing in February, however, Ismael Manaligod, head of the regional environmental department covering Dupax del Norte, presented<\/a> the agency\u2019s findings for approving the exploration permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe entire area covered by the exploration permit has a minimal impact on the Magat River. This is because it is only 0.8% of the total area of the Magat River forest reserve,\u201d he said. He also said that given the area\u2019s distance to the Magat dam, it has no adverse effects on the river, and that the area covered in the permit does not directly drain into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLastly, Woggle Corporation shall include mitigating measures in its environmental work programme,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
Senator Raffy Tulfo questions officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources at a hearing on 23 February. It was the first of two hearings that were part of a Senate inquiry into the permit issued to Woggle, triggered by the arrest of protestors in January (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
At the second hearing on 3 March, Woggle president Tommy Alfonso defended his company\u2019s record. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Senate ordered Woggle to remove its equipment from Bitnong within the next three days (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

At a separate Senate hearing on 3 March, Woggle\u2019s president, Tommy Alfonso, described<\/a> the conflict as \u201ca big misunderstanding\u201d and said the company remained open to dialogue. He said Woggle had followed proper procedure throughout, had \u201cundergone a strict 40-month process from 2022 to 2025\u201d, and complied with all government requirements. As evidence of responsible operations, he pointed to FCF Minerals\u2019 track record in the region. FCF Minerals, a Philippines-based subsidiary of the UK-listed Metals Exploration, owns a 60% stake in Woggle Corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have contributed more than PHP 5 billion (USD 83 million) to national and local government for the last five years alone, with PHP 1.5 billion of this amount going directly to the local government,\u201d Alfonso said at the hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leray said the mining industry\u2019s contribution to the Philippine economy remains marginal, making up just 0.68% of the GDP and 0.58% of total employment nationally in 2024, according to Mines and Geosciences Bureau data<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir contribution to GDP and employment doesn\u2019t even come close to the agricultural benefits of the land itself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Analiza, the economic argument is a hollow narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe feel frustrated because they keep insisting on going ahead with mining,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Protesters<\/div>
Residents and environmental activists join forces to protest against mining in Dupax del Norte outside the Senate during the hearing on 3 March (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Protesters<\/div>
A protestor wears a mask of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The words on the handcuffs read \u201cdestroyer of the environment\u201d (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/div>
Since the arrests in January, the residents of Dupax del Norte have received overwhelming support from various organisations and groups. Here, a group of students from a nearby university visit the Bitnong protest camp (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A victory, not yet an end<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The arrests in January did not end the resistance. Instead, they sparked massive public outcry from various groups \u2013 from environmentalists<\/a> to the Catholic church<\/a>, even a beauty queen<\/a>. Due to the growing opposition against the project, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau suspended<\/a> Woggle\u2019s permit, as senators called<\/a> for an inquiry<\/a> into its issuance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the 3 March hearing, the Senate ordered the local government to facilitate Woggle\u2019s pullout from Dupax del Norte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suspension of the Dupax project has had a knock-on effect on other mining operations. On 18 February, FCF Minerals announced<\/a> that by the end of 2026, they will cease operations at their existing gold mining project in nearby Runruno. The project would need new ore coming in from Dupax to remain feasible, it explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/div>
Dupax del Norte\u2019s vice mayor, Ric Ronelson Asuncion (in blue), explains to residents at the protest camp the agreed terms of Woggle\u2019s withdrawal from Bitnong village (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
One of Woggle\u2019s explorative drilling holes, now filled in with cement. Written in the cement are the date drilling started (21 October 2025) and the date Woggle stopped its operations on 11 February 2026, following the suspension of its exploration permit (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Aerial<\/div>
On 11 March, workers employed by Woggle rest after climbing a slope carrying drilling pipes to load onto a truck. The company\u2019s withdrawal from Bitnong was delayed by a few days, but has now been completed (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/div>
Despite Woggle\u2019s withdrawal, the protestors are determined to continue guarding their barricade until the company\u2019s permit has been permanently cancelled. Here, a community member lets a van through after checking the driver\u2019s credentials. The sign reads: \u201cCancellation, not temporary suspension\u201d (Image: Chantal Eco<\/a> \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Daynos said: \u201cThis success in Dupax del Norte is a success against mining all over the Philippines.\u201d He called it \u201ca victory for all of us\u201d, but added that the community ultimately needs the permanent cancellation of Woggle\u2019s permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metals Exploration chief executive Darren Bowden said they were putting the Dupax del Norte project on hold \u201cfor a little while\u201d, but did not announce a permanent stop to mining operations. \u201cDupax at this stage is not a mining-friendly environment, not somewhere where we can move quickly,\u201d Bowden said in a 6 February video<\/a> published on their website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf things turn around in the future, sure, I think there\u2019s still something there, I think there\u2019s still something that could be great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without concrete confirmation that Woggle will not return, Bitnong\u2019s barricade will continue to stand, and Analiza will continue to guard it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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